Date Published: 01/18/10

Flight 253 lesson and national security flaws

The most embarrassing moment for Nigeria on intelligence and security issue in the 21st century was crippling lapses of information sharing and cooperation within Nigeria’s intelligence and security agencies, buttress by failures in America’s intelligence system to share the intelligence beyond their boundary as resulted from failed plain-bombing attempt on American Airliner flight 253 by Mr. Abdulmutallab on Christmas day.

More often than not, jealously guiding of information and never sharing attitude by different intelligence agency including intelligence cracks through insider still remained some of the major factors leaving determined terrorist with alternative source for their operations and what they need globally.

According to the New York Times, “the National Security Adviser, Abdul Sarki Mukhtar has sharply reproached the Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA) for failing to pass on the warning it had received from an impeccable local source: Mr. Abdulmutallab’s own father, notably at a regular weekly meeting of the country’s intelligence officials” which is enough to force the responsible agency to put him on watch list and got him arrested at the airport in Lagos.

The truth of the situation is that Nigeria’s intelligence and security system is not fatally flawed rather it just needs strengthening and without proper intelligence and effective collaboration of Nigeria’s intelligence and security agencies on information sharing most especially interrelated agency’s, better understanding of intelligence already had and collection of information sufficient to fully develop national security investigation can not be totally achieved.

 Ayodele Paul O.
ayodelepaulcse@yahoo.com.
Osun State
Nigeria.